A Real Historic Diner Coming to DC!

This is one of the freshest things I’ve heard in a while. From an email from one of the owners:

“My partner and I are moving an historic 1940’s diner from New York to Washington, DC tomorrow. We bought a Silk City Diner, manufactured by Paterson Vehicle Company in 1947, that has been in upstate New York ever since it was put into service.

The nation’s capital currently has no true diners that I’m aware of; that is, historic modular diner buildings manufactured during 1930-60. So, we’re bringing one to DC by moving it from New York.

It will arrive sometime tomorrow. Unfortunately, I cannot give a specific time of arrival yet due to the nature of highway transportation of oversized loads.

The diner will be located in the Trinidad neighborhood of DC, at the site of a former used car lot shut down by Mayor Fenty in November 2008 (1050 Bladensburg Rd NE). It will be located across the street from Jimmy Valentine’s and 2 blocks or so from the H street bars/restaurants. The initial hours (once we open) will be from 6am-10pm (we think), but we’ll be open 24 hours on Friday and Saturday evenings.”

This is on a main thoroughfare with plenty of traffic, but the place will really come to it’s own at 3am on a Saturday morning. This would be a perfect stop on the way back into town from an evening’s debauchery in Baltimore. And the local drunks and mental cases will definitely keep this place hipster-free! For the time being at least. Definitely will be patronizing this place, but I sure hope they know what they’re doing. It’s a LONG walk from H Street when the sun goes down.

A CVS closing?! I thought they never closed, just kept spreading thier clone-spores.

Monkey is right about that location – that’s quite a happnin’ area, especially at night. Does anyone remember Jimmy McPhail’s House of Shards that was nearby? This is an area so difficult to tame that the McDonalds closed, despite tons of traffic. When I looked at their address on an aerial view, I was surprised how far is is from H, that is a stretch.

Sweet yes, but I wish it would move into that empty grassy lot on the east side of Georgia, between Quincy and Randolph, next to the liquor store. Probably too small an area… but we need something there! Even just add a bench and a gate and make it a dog park!

As a born and bred New Jerseyan, let me just say that a “true” diner isn’t necessarily a certain kind of structure. For me a diner is the kind of place that’s hearty, not fancy (no real diner I know would would ever have “haricots verts” on their menu *cough* “The Diner” *cough*).

Placemats with local ads.

Menus longer than some Russian novels.

Specials with soup or salad, two vegetables, beverage and dessert — none of them good for you in the slightest, but tasty and filling and closer to $10 than $20.

The real good ones do their baking on-site too, though that might be too much to ask for in DC.

Oh, and they’re open 24 hours.

For me, the Florida Ave. Grill comes closest to a real diner in DC. The Parkway in Silver Spring is also in the running, but only because this is DC and not the East Coast. (DC is the South, y’all!)

Yo Mike B. — I think what you are weakly tring to suggest is that we are not the North — I don’t think it takes too much intelligence to discern that we are East Coast — though, in my opinion, DC is more West Coast than South despite geography.

@anon – That’s the whole point of a diner: small staff, six booths, counter service. Low overhead, fast service, get them fed and on their way. There’s no time for lingering or screwing up orders because the orders are simple. The bigger the operation, the larger the menu, the greater the chance for screwups. Therein lies the appeal of the diner: simple, unpretentious comfort food served promptly and inexpensively.

across from jimmy valentines? last time i crossed that treacherous intersection at H and bladensburg rd late night we had to duck and cover due to a lengthy blast of automatic gunfire. im all for a diner like this, great idea, glad to see someone doing it. but 24hrs on weekends on bladensburg rd? anybody ever go the steak and egg place next to dc9 late night? im guessing similar but more dangerous.

All the permitting agencies go out of their way to make it impossible to get permits, impossible to understand why you’re not getting permits, and then to slap you down hard when you get the wrong permit or miss a permit.

Asian Al; you must not have spent a whole lot of time here: DC being more West Coast than Southern?! That is the strangest non sequitur I’ve heard in describing the District’s character. We are definitely East Coast, and surely Southern. Sometimes, if one doesn’t get out of their transient enclaves in the city, one may not notice our old-South ways…

hey y’all, owner of jimmy valentine’s here. this diner is directly between the one-block distance from my house in trinidad to my bar on bladensburg rd. i know matt & patrick well and have watched the course of their project firsthand. i’ve also been watching them try to drop the diner in place all day (it’s approved to go in now). they have bent over backwards to meet DCRA code throughout this process, they have built everything correctly, and have had met with unnecessary ‘frustration’, shall we say most gently, at every turn. the silly difficulty of today’s process has been financially wasteful, and isn’t it remarkable that an attempt to bring a positive business to a blighted neighborhood can attract such negative attention from authorities in a place that can’t otherwise seem to get any?

that being said, i’ve been a home-owner here for nearly 6 years and have never once encountered any problems with my neighbors and people on the street here (jimmy valentine’s has zero police reports to its address in nearly 2 years since opening). simple truth is that where there’s no prey, there are no predators, and i call bullsh*t on whoever commented on “[ducking automatic gunfire]” last time they were in our ‘hood. nobody shot at you “hilltop”, especially next to CVS as you claim (“h and bladensburg”). corner drug dealers trump muggers; dealers won’t allow that kind of crime because of the police attention it draws. of course, now that more businesses are moving here we’ll soon attract the kind of criminals that plague dupont, georgetown, adams morgan, u st., and increasingly on h st…

commentary & rant aside, the diner itself is a bona fide ’47. it’s deceptively small, it’s way cool, and it actually fits the street/landscape here like it’s been here all along (though honestly it’s currently more like a mirage looking off my back deck after years of nothing but shady used car dealers). matt & patrick are hard-working and honest people pursuing their vision completely out of their own pocket and i’m confident they’ll get the food and menu right. the intense problem-solving you witnessed today is just the tip of the iceburg and they’ve got no safety net in this venture. few people have that kind of fortitude.

best of luck boys, i never thought the day would come when a 20-bag would no longer be the first commodity available walking out my front or back door : )